I have the BMW 318 since a couple of months with the latest version of the Idrive.
I have put some MP3 from USB sticks (in the glove department) to the harddrive.
Now I'd like to save all the music from the harddrive to a high capacity USB stick.

I've tried with a 4GB stick and it indeed copied all the MP3's from the harddrive, BUT the file extension has changed from MP3 to BR4.
The file sizes are exactly the same (MP3 <-> BR4), but the file contents are different. I opened them with an hexadecimal editor and they indeed do not match.

I tried with another stick (SanDisk 8GB) => same result.

Does anyone know why the extension is changed by my BMW, and how to open those BR4 files? I've checked with Google -> no luck. I changed the extension to MP3 -> did not work.

It is a copyright protection scheme. The files created by the backup routine are meant only for restoring back to the HDD (and probably keyed to your car in particular). I suppose they are concerned that you might use the DVD drive to rip CDs and then copy them over to a USB stick.

There is also a SIB/bulletin from BMW that prohibits service personnel from doing a back up of the MP3 colleciton for you, in case they were about to erase/replace the HDD. Again, mainly to prevent copyright infringement issues.

So its useful to do a back-up any time you expect the hard drive/CIC to be serviced, in case they nuke the contents for you.

That's how its supposed to work. I have only done a backup so far, so I can't say for sure it will work as advertised. I should have tested it right after I got the car when I only had a few songs loaded and re-loading would have been a breeze if they were wiped out by the restoring process failing.

Maybe someone else will give it a try before they load up their HDD (and hopefully not because they have suffered a system crash).

#!/usr/bin/python
import os,struct,sys,string
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# In my case, I've got a number of ogg files with embedded vorbis
# comments. Script is run in some directory within that ogg
# collection, and it reads all the ogg files below that point
# converting the vorbis comments to id3 tags, creating the BR4
# files BMW wants. You do have to create the BMWData / Music /
# data_1 file with all the directory names to read for it to
# restore properly. So for a different car than my 2010, you could
# make a backup and then see if your structure is the same as my:
#
# BMWData
# BMWBackup.ver
# Music
# data_1 <-script creates this
# media_directory_1 <-script creates this
# media_directory_2 <-script creates this
#
# ...and update the script as necessary. Code_1 and Code_2
# could also be unique to my car or the year or model. I just
# copy a bunch of CD directories ripped in ogg format for other
# players into some fresh directory and then run this script
# from the top of that fresh directory to get a new USB load for
# the vehicle.
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

# base_directory=os.getenv('HOME')+'/conversion/BMWData/Music/'
base_directory='/media/disk/BMWData/Music/'
data_1=[]
code_1='1258287780'
code_2='8'
quality='160k' # Or you can go down to 128k rate MP3 if acceptable
# I think a -q6 setting ogg file is the equivalent of a 192k MP3, but
# in a car I dunno if anyone but the most refined audiophile could
# hear the difference on our BMW speakers between 160k and a higher
# fidelity (and thus much larger) file.
map={'.BR3':'.mp4','.BR4':'.mp3','.BR5':'.wma',
'.mp4':'.BR3','.mp3':'.BR4','.wma':'.BR5'}
number_of_files=0

print 'Removing existing',base_directory+'*'
# Caution: the following line removes existing USB music
# collection. In your environment change the base_directory and
# comment out this line until it all works to your satisfaction.
os.system('rm -rf '+base_directory+'*')

# Get the count of all .ogg files below this point...
for root, dirs, files in os.walk('.', topdown=True):
for name in files:
filename=os.path.join(root, name)
if filename.find('.ogg')>0:
number_of_files+=1
file_number=0

good question. Probably a program we would run in the computer, that would take the specified file (the one containing the backup data files) and convert it back to mp3, by negating its bytes. I suppose after running the program a new output file would be created with the mp3 songs on it...

I couldn't find this file to download as it seems to have been deleted.
So I created my own version and I just ran it through a backup that I created and it worked perfectly.
I made it this morning and wouldn't be surprised if it has some issues, but I converted 200 files in a couple of minutes.
If anyone is interested, send me a note and I'll send you the file. If enough people want it, I'll post it somewhere.

I couldn't find this file to download as it seems to have been deleted.
So I created my own version and I just ran it through a backup that I created and it worked perfectly.
I made it this morning and wouldn't be surprised if it has some issues, but I converted 200 files in a couple of minutes.
If anyone is interested, send me a note and I'll send you the file. If enough people want it, I'll post it somewhere.

i'd be more interested in converting MP3s to BR4s
that way i can create the folders i like, with the songs i like
then when i am done, convert the whole folder to BR4 files and import that as a backup into idrive
as if this is a backup i had created earlier using idrive.

I have password encrypted the zip file so that certain virus programs don't block it. But I'm not sure if that is really making a difference.
Password: www.e90post.com

Let me know if this works for you and any comments you might have. I can be used to convert files both ways from Backup format to MP3/WMA and also allows you to create a Backup that can be used to restore to BMW.

It was thrown together fairly quickly, so there are bound to be some bugs. Just let me know what they are and I'll update it.